


Daddy's Girl

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Isn't She Lovely [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Canon Divergence, Friendship, Other, badassery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 23:11:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8641960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Yuzu has a father, and it's not Leo Akaba. (though part of a series, it can stand on its own.)





	

As Yuya rages at Leo Akaba, his face twisted and eyes glowing, Yuzu can’t help but think that she’s to blame for this. If only she hadn’t allowed herself to be captured, if only she could stand by Yuya’s side and snap him out of this, so Leo Akaba could see that Yuya isn’t the monster he thinks Yuya is. If Ray did prevent Zarc from destroying the world, surely she wouldn’t want this, for both of them to be put back together. If Ray didn’t kill Zarc, but just separated the pieces of him so he could still live, then surely she loved Zarc just as Yuzu still loves Yuya, even as he becomes something she doesn’t recognize.

The tube she’s in glows brightly, and she backs away from the glass sides. She’s feeling weaker with each passing minute, and she’s afraid, not just for Yuya, but herself as well. She doesn’t know who Ray Akaba is, but she’s not Yuzu. Yuzu is her own person, she’s Hiiragi Yuzu, the person she’s been for fourteen years, and she doesn’t want to be Ray Akaba.

She wants to go home. She wants this nightmare to end, to wake up in her own bed and go downstairs to see her dad making pancakes. Her chest aches as she thinks of her father. What will happen to him if she becomes Ray? He’s only had her for fourteen years. What has become of him already? Yuzu’s been gone for so long. How is her father managing without her, if he is at all?

“Dad,” she whispers, bowing her head.

“I’m here.”

Yuzu jerks her head up, her heart lifting. Is it possible…?

Leo Akaba is looking at her, his eyes soft. It was him, he said it.

Yuzu grits her teeth. “I wasn’t talking to you,” she snarls.

“But that’s who I am,” Leo Akaba says. “I’m your father.”

Yuzu slams herself against the tube. “YOU ARE NOT!” She shrieks. Rage floods her, greater than any rage she’s ever felt in her life. It strengthens her, and she clings to it.

“I HAVE A FATHER!” Yuzu screeches. “I have a father and his name is Hiiragi Shuzo! He’s the one who has raised me for fourteen years! He sings me to sleep at night and knows my favorite movies, he kisses my scraped knees and takes me out for ice cream, he picks me up when I’m down, he taught me how to ride a bike and how to duel! And he loves me! He loves me so much it brings him to tears each day I grow one day older, because he never wants me to stop being his little girl! I see it in his eyes each time he looks at me, he loves me so much he can hardly stand it, I’m his whole universe, I’m the first person he thinks about each morning and the last one at night! I have known every day of my life what it means to be loved by Hiiragi Shuzo!”

Yuzu slams her fists against the glass. “You don’t love me! You have been looking right past me this whole time! All you care about is what you want! I look at your eyes and I see nothing!”

“SILENCE!” Leo Akaba screams. “You are Ray!”

“I am Hiiragi Yuzu!” Yuzu shouts. She presses her face to the glass. “I was named after my grandmother! I am Hiiragi Shuzo’s daughter and Sakaki Yuya’s best friend! I am fourteen years old and I remember the day Hiiragi Shuzo found me on the street! _I remember it!_ I remember being cold and alone, and I remember that he came to me and sheltered me! He cared for me, he said he felt like I belonged with him, like I needed him! And he was right, I did need him! I still need him!”

The glow around her tube begins to fade. She slams her palms against the glass and it splinters, slowly, but the cracks grow as she slams her hands against the glass again, and again.

“Stop this!” Leo Akaba shouts. He stares at her wide eyed, his duel with Yuya all but forgotten.

“NO!” Yuzu screams. “You are not my father! I am not Ray! I don’t love you! I love Hiiragi Shuzo, and I will always be his daughter, I will never be yours! **I WILL NEVER BE YOUR DAUGHTER!** ”

She slams her hands against the glass and it shatters. She breaks through the opening, and Leo Akaba reaches for her, but she kicks him.

 _‘The boys-only place,’_ she thinks to herself. The last time she kicked a boy there, he had insulted her father.

Leo Akaba doubles over, and Yuzu runs past him, across the field, and she launches herself at Yuya. She crashes into him and sends him staggering backwards.

“I’m here, Yuya!” She shouts, tears threatening to overwhelm her. She clings to Yuya’s shoulders. He’s like stone in her arms, and she hides her face in his neck. “I’m here now! I’m Yuzu, I’m not Ray and I never will be, and you promised you would protect my smile!”

There’s a beat of silence, then a gasp. “Yuzu?”

She leans back and looks at Yuya. She knows those eyes, those beautiful eyes, and that gentle face. She touches Yuya’s cheeks.

“Yuya, can you hear me?”

Yuya nods and puts his hands over hers.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Leo Akaba howls. Yuya’s eyes flick towards him and his scowl returns.

“Don’t listen to him,” Yuzu says. Yuya looks back at her and his expression softens once more. Yuzu continues, “I don’t care what anyone says about you and what you used to be. I know all you want is to make people happy. That’s you, Yuya, that’s all you.”

Yuya closes his eyes. “I don’t know if I can be that.”

“Why?” Yuzu asks. “Because of this power you have? Who says it has to control you? You’ve used it to protect people. Maybe it overwhelmed you in the past, but I’m here now and I can help you snap out of it before it gets that far.”

“He’s dangerous!” Leo Akaba screams.

Yuzu’s eyes fill with tears. “You’re not Zarc any more than I am Ray,” She says, her voice shaking. “We’re Yuya and Yuzu, we always have been and we always will be. All I want more than anything is for us to go home and be with our families. I want to go back to You Show and see the kids again. I want to watch movies with you, and throw popcorn at your head when you spoil the ending, and I want to walk home from school with you.” Her voice breaks. “And if I ever get married someday then I want you to be my man of honor. Have I ever told you that, Yuya? I want you, my brother, to be the third most important person to me at my wedding, after my dad and myself.”

Yuya laughs at that. “Your dad comes first? And I come before your husband?”

“Of course,” Yuzu says, smiling. “You two are the most important men in my life.” Then she scowls. “And who says I have to have a husband to marry, what if I have a wife? Where is my fan? I ought to smack you for that heteronormative bullcrap.”

Yuya laughs again, and he hugs Yuzu tightly, his face pressed to her hair. “I missed you,” he whispers.

Yuzu squeezes her arms around him. “I missed you, too.” She backs away and powers up her duel disk. “And you’re not alone in this. I’m with you every step of the way.”

“No!” Leo Akaba yells, but Yuzu’s already taken the intrusion penalty. She stands beside Yuya and faces Leo Akaba, her shoulders set with determination.

Behind Leo Akaba, the glow around the other three tubes is fading. Ruri picks herself up off the floor, looking dazed. Rin touches her forehead, blinking rapidly, and Serena pounds on the glass.

“Get him, Yuzu!” She hollers.

Yuya ends his turn, and Yuzu draws a card.

 _‘Hold on, everyone,’_ she thinks. _‘We’re coming home.’_

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously though, if the Yu-boys and bracelet girls aren’t back in their own, individual bodies by the end of the series, I am going to personally fly to japan and throw a tomato at the writers. Forget about Ray and Zarc.


End file.
